Puzzles
Pictures and ideas related to The contents of Johan's desk will be covered in a separate article. 108XJ On December 13, one of Vladimir's FB statuses read, :Within time, we learn sayings and proverbs. His next status read, :W.J.Neatby, 1895: adage, aphorism, apophthegm, axiom, byword, catch phrase, dictum, epigram, folk wisdom, maxim, moral, motto, platitude, precept, repartee, text, truism, witticism He then made the following 2 comments on this status: :Grenewic :108XJ What is the meaning of these 2 comments? He is not known for unintentional bad spelling, so what is up with the spelling of Greenwich, and what is the meaning of 108XJ? ainmal-sulutit sutlucco This phrase appeared in Vanessa's last Dec. 13 blog post; she mentioned it being scribbled on one of the items in her uncle's desk. As this item has since been scanned, see discussion of this phrase on the page dealing with the contents of Johan's desk. John Jeffreys The following status updates were seen on Vlad's FB: :Who to trust? Saying this earlier at 11:28 then Employment 20 past noon. (at 4:05 pm his time Dec. 14 -- may not be part of this set) :1753: John Jefferys rolls the dice (at 17:53 his time Dec. 14) :1755 starts moving on (at 17:55 his time) :1759: H4 the piece is perfect (at 17:58 his time) The periods puzzle and 111 obsession On Dec. 14, Vladimir sent a FB friend request to Telos/James containing some of the info from James' FB profile, but with changes made to the punctuation: :Give people hell ..., any punctuation... and single letter abbreviations for full words. :Lots of periods there. Where are they mostly found? James responded, :They're from my 'About Me' section. No secret there. It's open to the public :) and got a further clue from Vladimir in response: :Silly boy. Science not your thing then. In a separate conversation, Vlad also said this to James: :and curioser. you shold read more thogh. No 12 year olds here, despite the spelling. When asked for some help figuring out what he was getting at, Vlad gave James a link to an entry giving various definitions of "period" in an online dictionary, at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/period . In a later message, he also included the letters "xv" on their own at the end. At first, some thought this was pointing at the element phosphorus, since it has atomic number 15, but it was actually pointing at definition 15 in the linked online dictionary article, which in turn was trying to tell us to look at the row (period) in the periodic table corresponding to the number of periods in Vlad's friend request of James (7). Later still, Vlad tried a different tactic, saying, "One of the first few perfect totient numbers belongs to Nelson. And not by coincidence." He also posted to James' FB wall: :O! for my sake do you with Fortune chide, :The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds, :That did not better for my life provide :Than public means which public manners breeds. James found out that Nelson's number is 111. He also noticed that the sentence mentioning spelling lacked 3 "u"s, and that UUU in chemistry is Unununium, which was a temporary name for Roentgenium. The atomic number of Roentgenium is also 111. Dawn noticed at that point that Vlad had changed his FB status at some point to, "Röntgen sleeps now. As does his name sake, and all for u. With more pieces in play, more game is revealed. Red to move..." Röntgen is the name of the physicist for whom the element was named. The poetic lines Vlad had posted to James' wall are from Shakespeare's Sonnet 111. The description box on Vlad's FB profile says simply, "Astronomia : 111 ." In a discussion with Telos, Vlad said, :There are phases of opportunity that I can seize - will explain another time. Needless to say, 1.11 has not been chosen at random... :Hence discussion with references to certain books. A binary error message - SOLVED On December 15, Vanessa wrote a blog post: i hate computers. or rather my scanner, the software it comes with mucked up the machine. Worked last night until 11:10 this morning when an error message came up and a small popup think thats what they're called? PLEASE ENTER CODE: the error message was weird. Tried turning it off and on but won't work. keeps coming back with all the 0s and 1s. hopefully someone can help! 01010011 01101001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01110010 00101110 00100000 01001001 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100011 01101111 01100111 01101110 01101001 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110111 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110000 01110101 01110100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110110 01101001 01100011 01100101 00101110 00100000 01010000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01110010 01100101 01100110 01110101 01101100 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100100 01100001 01110100 01100001 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01100110 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100110 01100001 01101100 01101100 01110011 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101000 01100001 01101110 01100100 01110011 00101110 00100000 01001111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110000 01100001 01110011 01110011 00101110 00100000 01001010 01000011 01000011 00100000 00110001 00111001 00111001 00111001 thanks V The time at which the computer stopped working, 11:10, is noteworthy as it contains the 111 number that Vladimir is obsessed with. Dawn translated the binary: :Sister. If you are reading this then the computer has recognised a new input device. Please be careful with all the data on this computer as if it falls into wrong hands. Our mother will let you pass. JCC 1999� Amandel suggested that the JCC was "Prolly Johan Christian Cardui, V's uncle, sent this msg to his sister Annabell Cardui. As her DOD is 11 Dec 1999 V's mother may have never seen it." Telos figured out that the bit around "let you pass" was telling us that we needed to look for a password to put into the PLEASE ENTER CODE popup, and Amandel reasoned this must refer to Cynthia Phanes Cardui or her DOB (29 Jul 1923), as she was the mother of Johan Christian Cardui and Annabell Cardui. In a post on her blog, V said, :Well I put my mums full name in and. Nothing happened. Then something claire said about computerz and spaces and how you take them away for when doing passwordz and stuff. so i tried: CYNTHIAPHANES and it worked! 565 or 568? Wich is which? In Vlad's "Hierarchy" FB photo album there is one photo each of Jim's "board" and James' "board." Some of Vlad's comments on both "boards": :This system has some shortcomings. For instance, three minor pieces (nine points) are often slightly stronger than two rooks (ten points) or a queen (nine points) :But what value does one life have? His next comment on Jim's "board" is: :And the value of 568? Up to the king and queen to decide. ...but his comment on James' "board" is instead: :And the value of 565? Up to the king and queen to decide. Telos suggested these numbers may have to do with chess problems...see links: http://chesstr.com/problems/565 and http://chesstr.com/problems/568. Vladimir has also asked or stated, "Wich is which?" on occasion. In a conversation with Bixy/Beka on Dec. 17, Vlad seemed to give this a Schrödinger's Cat type of twist: Vladimir Do you always stick to your decisions in life or do you ever change your mind... What if both were possible? 8:59pm Beka Interesting thought. I tend to not regret the choices I make. 9:00pmVladimir Not talking about regret. Many people think about changing the line. I am talking about splitting it, seeing both. 9:02pmBeka Still. I think playing both sides of a decision might prove a bit... more complicated than one would expect. But that's just me. I'm a pretty straight-forward woman. 9:03pmVladimir Time to stretch your limits then my dear. You will be a rook then, orthogonal when the time comes? Another conversation with Telos also seemed to support the idea of being able to be in two places/states of being at once. The Timon of Athens Cover Vladimir posted this to his Facebook Wall on Dec. 18. Amanda Logan noted of the original image, "It's a design by Wyndham Lewis, created 1912, published 1913." However, the image is reflected, and, as Vlad noted in a comment, "The centre is offset." Queens alone, Puzzle 1 - SOLVED A quote was found in Vlad's "Queens alone" FB album (which only the queens can see): Eliot talks of her: If you shut me here, I will move the very woods and rocks to pity. Her name frees the king to move. Dawn reports, "Of course, it's from Timon. We tried the name Philomelia as the password with nothing. Then we tried my real name and it didn't work. S" Another approach was suggested by Bixy: "Maybe try something to do with TS Eliot's "The Waste Land"? http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html In The Waste Land, her name is spelled "Philomel" - try that?" "Philomel" turned out to be the correct password to allow the kings to open the password-protected files they had been sent. The Kings' Encrypted E-mail Once the queens gave the kings the password to open the file, they found the following: "My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me. "Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak. "What are you thinking of? What thinking? What? "I never know what you are thinking. Think." My chess moves. Please play them out. 49 72 65 6e 62 62 72 20 76 62 20 62 72 6f 6e 2e 20 56 2c 20 71 66 6a 6e 69 6e 61 2c 20 72 7a 20 65 66 63 2e 0d 0a 56 65 20 74 66 65 63 72 74 63 76 65 70 20 66 63 71 6e 61 62 20 66 64 63 62 76 75 6e 20 66 6f 20 49 72 65 6e 62 62 72 e2 80 99 62 20 6f 72 7a 76 79 6c 20 56 20 71 72 69 6e 20 73 61 66 64 70 71 63 20 63 71 6e 20 72 63 63 6e 65 63 76 66 65 20 63 66 20 7a 6c 20 75 66 66 61 20 66 6f 20 63 71 6e 20 67 6e 66 67 79 6e 20 56 20 6a 66 61 78 6e 75 20 6f 66 61 20 66 65 74 6e 2e 20 43 71 6e 62 6e 20 74 72 61 6e 20 65 66 63 20 6f 66 61 20 63 71 6e 20 37 32 63 71 20 2e 37 20 6a 66 61 78 20 7a 64 62 76 74 20 72 65 75 20 63 71 64 62 20 56 20 72 7a 20 73 66 64 65 75 20 63 66 20 62 6e 74 64 61 6e 20 65 6e 6a 20 62 64 61 61 66 64 65 75 62 2e 20 43 71 6e 20 62 65 66 6a 2c 20 56 20 71 72 75 20 63 71 66 64 70 71 63 2c 20 6a 66 64 79 75 20 71 66 79 75 20 63 71 6e 7a 20 66 6f 6f 2e 20 56 63 20 71 72 75 20 63 71 6e 20 61 6e 69 6e 61 62 6e 20 6e 6f 6f 6e 74 63 2e 0d 0a 43 71 6e 20 79 66 66 78 76 65 70 20 70 79 72 62 62 20 76 62 20 65 66 6a 20 75 61 72 6a 76 65 70 20 63 71 66 62 6e 20 63 66 20 7a 6e 20 63 71 72 63 20 56 20 71 72 69 6e 20 62 66 64 70 71 63 20 6f 66 61 20 72 20 79 66 65 70 20 63 76 7a 6e 2e 20 0d 0a 43 71 6e 20 41 6e 75 20 48 64 6e 6e 65 20 71 72 62 20 65 66 63 20 73 6e 6e 65 20 74 61 6e 72 63 6e 75 20 6a 71 76 74 71 20 7a 6e 72 65 62 20 63 71 6e 20 6a 66 79 6f 20 76 65 20 62 71 6e 6e 67 e2 80 99 62 20 74 79 66 63 71 76 65 70 20 7a 72 6c 20 6c 6e 63 20 65 66 63 20 73 76 63 6e 20 62 66 20 71 72 61 75 2e 20 56 20 72 7a 20 62 66 61 61 6c 20 6f 66 61 20 73 6e 76 65 70 20 62 66 20 74 61 6c 67 63 76 74 20 72 65 75 20 72 79 66 66 6f 2e 20 43 71 76 62 20 6a 76 79 79 20 74 71 72 65 70 6e 2c 20 73 64 63 20 71 66 6a 20 62 66 66 65 20 75 6e 67 6e 65 75 62 20 66 65 20 70 6e 63 63 76 65 70 20 62 66 7a 6e 20 75 76 62 63 72 65 74 6e 20 6f 61 66 7a 20 7a 6c 20 74 64 61 61 6e 65 63 20 67 79 72 74 6e 2e 0d 0a 4c 66 64 61 20 6f 61 76 6e 65 75 2c 0d 0a 49 79 72 75 76 7a 76 61 2e 0d 0a When copied from Word and pasted into Wordpad, the full image could be seen, revealing a portion that could not be seen in the original. Knights alone, Part 1 - SOLVED? Two pictures were posted to the Knights alone group: The caption read, "David: ii Buddleia" We were able to identify this as a variety of butterfly bush known as the Black Knight. The caption read, "Sit back and listen". We were eventually able to identify this as a photo of Lake Lucerne. Music critic Ludwig Rellstab compared the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's so-called (incorrectly named) "Moonlight Sonata" to moonlight shining on this lake. Ludwig Rellstab was also the name of a German chess master. Wikipedia notes of this piece of music, "It is actually music of funereal lamentation, set deliberately by Beethoven in the lamenting key of C-sharp minor."